Saturday, May. 02, 2009

Prosser looks to formally replace Moore on Tuesday

HERALD STAFF

The Prosser football team will look inward to replace a legend.

Former player and assistant coach Benji Sonnichsen has been recommended to replace Tom Moore, who ended his highly successful 23-year reign over the Mustangs program two months ago.

The Prosser School Board has a meeting scheduled Tuesday and will consider the recommendation.

Sonnichsen didn't want to talk too much about the position earlier this week, except to say he was thrilled to become head coach of the Mustangs.

"You betcha," he said. "I'm excited about it."

Sonnichsen was a quarterback and safety for Moore in the mid-1990s and went on to play safety at Pacific Lutheran in Tacoma, winning an NCAA Division III national title with the Lutes in 1999.

He was the special teams coordinator from 2002-04 at Prosser and coached running backs and safeties. He was the head coach at Mount Vernon from 2005-07 (his teams were 8-22), then returned to Prosser as an assistant last season.

Moore raised the Prosser program into a perennial state championship contender in his 23 seasons, rolling up a 234-38 record. His teams won four state titles, were state runners-up four more times and collected 21 league titles and 22 playoff berths.

The 53-year-old announced his resignation in March -- months after his Mustangs lost 35-34 to Lynden in two overtimes in the 2A title game -- so he could spend time watching his sons, Kellen and Kirby, play at Boise State.